Take this health warning from a friend, Please!

Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Hi! I have recently experienced something that I feel everyone should know so they can use it as needed. It's a health issue.

A few weeks ago, I went to the doctor on a routine visit and mentioned that I felt like I had a balloon inside my stomach that would blow up and deflate in rapid succession. He asked a few questions, palpated my stomach, and checked out my gallbladder area. I went in for an ultrasound of my gallbladder and found out the thing was impacted with stones and infected even after several doses of cipro (antibiotic). He sent me to a surgeon.

My surgeon removed the ailing and nearly dead and missing organ by robolaproscopy. Now I have five incisions that are healing nicely with DermaBond. I have stitches inside that will melt away, too. But the best thing is that I am rid of the GB.

The worst of it is, the GB had been dying and had been infected for years. Why didn't I say something earlier I was asked by more than one doctor. I ended up with my primary, one of his associates, my surgeon, one of his associates, and a GI specialist plus one of his associates. After the removal of GB, my system went offline. I threw a stone they couldn't get fast enough before it disappeared into my digestive system and along the line it clogged up my pancreas which gave me pancreatitis for at least one day. Not a good thing to happen because that can kill you. So I had antibiotics and antifungals poured into me for two days until the antifungal was pulled because it made me sick. I was getting anticoagulants in the stomach area, insulin in my arm because they screwed up everyday on taking my blood sugar levels at the wrong time and then when I was finally aware of what was going on, I discovered they were giving me my full days worth of meds in one dose instead of two as required by all but the hospital pharmacy and nursing staff. If you are supposed to take two pills, one in the am and one in the pm, do not let them give you all of it at one time. This is why my bsl would be 72 at one point and the next time they checked, 5 minutes after eating instead of 2 hours after or right before, my bsl would be over 200 and I'd get the insulin.

But why didn't I tell them when I was having problems. I never knew I was having problems. I thought I was getting old and I ate something that my system didn't like, such as red onions. Love those things - but would I get sick from eating them. Who remembers to tell their doctor stuff like that. I just didn't eat any onion except sweet onions because they didn't give me the problem.

I don't know of anything else that would cause me a problem to think that maybe something inside was going out. I often think of myself as a droid with parts to be analyzed and attended to as Data on Star Trek. I know I used to have a lot of GERD. But when I lost the 45 pounds, the GERD stopped and I was never so happy as to have that happen. I pictured it as a gage on an engine with a red zone. I must have reached the red zone in my weight and that was how my body was letting me know that, "Hey! We got a problem and need to dump something to release this pressure or we're going to go Chernobyl!" I started paying attention to things going on inside. What was my body trying to tell me. Not once did I feel like my body was telling me to go talk to the doctor about the GB.

Now I picture my control center (brain) as having a group of tiny controllers (like people) inside there turning knobs, flipping switches, and making adjustments for this, that, and the other. So when they removed that GB, those controllers started hopping because things were going offline and I was getting too much of this, too little of that, or didn't need something at all, perhaps needed something else I had never needed before. There was a lot of screaming and yelling as they jumped from one system going haywire to another emergency and back to the first one. Finally, things were managed sufficiently to settle me down and the emergency was over. Then it was merely maintaining me long enough to figure out what was needed in proper amounts and at proper times. Once the controllers got the systems back in order and everything doing what it was supposed to do properly, they took a break then sat down and had a meeting to determine what had happened and what was done and what should have been done. The thing that came out on top was lack of communication.

Nobody had communicated to me that the GB was acting up, dying, and falling apart. The controllers just kept making adjustments to take care of the breakdowns, the uneven service, the other problems that it was creating as it started adhering to my liver and making a mess of the area.

So bottom line is, ask your doctor for an ultrasound. They don't hurt. They are not unpleasant, they don't even cost that much and if that is an issue for you, ask what the cost is before consenting to doing it so you're in sinc with that, too. Why worry about that.

They can tell what's going on with your GB through an ultrasound. I could even see there was a problem when I was allowed to see the picture.

So now I've got more of an awareness of my body and what's it trying to tell me. If you don't pay any attention to your body, stop and listen. It might be trying to tell you that something is no longer working, or breaking down and if you don't let it get fixed, it's going to kill you.

I was told I was about 1 week away from death. When I got home from the hospital after six days of hospital life that wasn't bad, but not the best fun I've had, I found two ladies in my community had died in their sleep. A third one died two days after I got home. I would have been number four had I ignored it any longer and to tell the truth, I don't even know why I mentioned it at all as it didn't hurt, it just felt weird to have my stomach blow up and collapse in rapid succession twice. Who would think that is a GB?

When I realized how easily it was for them to look at my GB, I wondered why they don't just do it around 40, 50, and 60 as a general basis. I believe in proactive medicine, not wait for the disasters to come along and force issues. Now it's gone, I feel better, still have to go slow and can't do a lot of exercise as it has to heal for 41 days and I've only done about 16 of that. So while I feel much better, have a desire to get out there and pump iron or swim, and look better than I have in a few weeks, I'm not ready to be let out of the corral yet. That's the hardest part for me now. I love the diet I'm on - Low Fat! Trying to mess that with Low Carb is sometimes difficult, but I'm losing about 1 pound a day and that's what I'm liking a lot.

So just a suggestion, when you go to your doctor next time, ask for an ultrasound of the GB, especially if your 40 or older. I doesn't hurt, cost much, and can save your life! Give it to yourself as a birthday present. You'll be glad you did.

Nothing's nicer than to have the doctor tell you, "There's nothing wrong!"

PICKIE98
Good God, Godfrey!!! What an ordeal to experience!! I am so happy that it turned out good for you. I cannot afford to get the ultrasound: I just paid off my colonoscopy:It cost me over $2,500 out-of-pocket, PLUS two days of missed work. I have insurance ,but it does not cover anything like that..1693 days ago

MORTICIAADDAMS
It sounds like you could have died from infection. Unfortunately most doctors are not allowed to order ultrasounds of the gallbladder unless the person is symptomatic if they have health insurance. The patient can pay for it out of pocket but they are really expensive here. They have strict rules on what can be ordered now and everything has to be pre-approved. 1713 days ago

EGGBASKET1
WOW !!! WHAT AN EYE OPENER ! I 'M GLAD YOU ARE OK. THANKS FOR SHARING AND I WILL TALK TO MY DOCTOR ABOUT ANY AND ALL THINGS EVEN THOUGH HAVE DISMISSED IT AS NOTHING IN THE PAST ! THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP AND GLAD YOU ARE OK. HUGS...EGG1713 days ago

KERRYG155
I'm amazed you didn't have any other pain with that. I kept having pain and the doctor told me I had IBS (irritable bowel) even though I told hi I had no problems in that area. It took another two visits before he finally ordered the ultrasound and they found a lot of stones in my gallbladder and it was removed. My pain was nothing like yours but that is why so many people do die-sometimes the doctors are just not hearing what we are saying or they think we exaggerate or they just don't want to order a test that might be unnecessary. I don't know. Glad you have gotten yours all taken care of now!1713 days ago